In his novel The Chosen, Chaim Potok writes about a boy, Reuven Malter, from Brooklyn who is going through his coming-of-age period and experiences as a Jewish student. Throughout The Chosen, themes of friendships, reaching maturity, and understanding unravel and seep into Reuven Malter’s life. In this period of maturing, some pivotal moments occur, changing Reuven’s view of others and understanding of relationships.
In the first couple chapters, Reuven was doing so well with baseball and fit in, and all that came crashing down too soon with one single hit to the eye by a baseball hit by Danny Saunders. When everything seems to be lost and Reuven was helpless, a friendship was blooming; little did those two boys know that they’d be talking
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This news literally gives David a heart attack, sending him into the hospital. David is bedridden for quite a while, causing Reuven to move into Danny Saunders home temporarily. In this period of time, Reuven now is vulnerable to Isaac Saunders, Danny’s father, and is not learning about him through the words of others but through his own eyes and interactions with the Reb. At this point, Reuven is now attached to the Saunders family, in a therapist way. Danny shares many details of his confusing life, and Reuven guides him through it; being a diary for Danny to write in essentially. When Reuven moves in, this just brings the two boys closer, creating another change in their lives. After he returns from the hospital, Mr. Malter immediately jumps into sharing out his vigor beliefs of a jewish homeland in Palestine. He goes public, speaking for hours in front of large crowds; it is then that Danny distances himself and completely leaves Reuven’s life. There’s something missing in his life from there on, and he blamed himself for quite a while, trying to think of a reason why he left Reuven's life. He stalks Danny down in the bathroom at their college, only to
"When he had been the prize apprentice of Hancock's Wharf, the envy of all the other masters, the principal bread-winner of the Laphams (and he knew it), he had been quite a different boy from the arrogant, shabby young tramp of late summer and early fall." (pg. 126) As Johnny Tremain progressed through the book, Johnny Tremain, he experienced major changes in his personality, demeanor, and thoughts. These changes all led back to one major event in the young boy’s life, when Johnny burnt his hand, crippling it in the process. Johnny Tremain was a young apprentice for his master, Mr. Lapham, a silversmith. Because of the apprentices’ newly crippled hand, he had to learn to have a different outlook on life; therefore, changing him into a better person. As Johnny Tremain traveled throughout his life, he was changed from a boy to a man; he was no longer proud, callous, and temperamental - the signs of a boy - but instead he was humble, caring, and placid - true signs of a man.
Then later on in the book when Reuven gets better Mr. Malter’s health coms back to him and he starts acting normal again. Showing these scenes Chaim Potok really captured Mr. Malter’s
Beginning with their appearances, Reuven appears to be a normal person. He dresses casually and wears simple shirts and shorts/pants. He does not always wear he yarmulke unless he is in the Saunders 's household. He is clean shaven and appears to simply be a normal teen. Danny, being a Hassidic,
In the novel, The Chosen, Chaim Potok successfully captures the strange customs of a Jewish community through wit and satire. Potok's novel focuses on two Jewish boys, who live in a world where their families expect high standards of achievement of them. The wish to become an insightful leader in the Jewish community was an always-predominant custom of the two families. But with hard work and perseverance, the two boys (Rueven and Danny), find out that they really are, and what lives they will lead in the future. The novel concentrates on the desire to conceive a person's personal wants while conforming to tradition.
The third main relationship is Hasidism verses Zionism. The relationship between the two fathers and the two sons is a very important theme in this book. Because of their different backgrounds, Reb Saunders and David Malters approached raising a child from two totally different perspectives. Despite the obvious differences in the two men’s beliefs, both did what they thought was right for their sons. Reb Saunders was a Hasidic tzaddik and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.
In a restaurant, picture a young boy enjoying breakfast with his mother. Then suddenly, the child’s gesture expresses how his life was good until “a man started changing it all” (285). This passage reflects how writer, Dagoberto Gilb, in his short story, “Uncle Rock,” sets a tone of displeasure in Erick’s character as he writes a story about the emotions of a child while experiencing his mother’s attempt to find a suitable husband who can provide for her, and who can become a father to him. Erick’s quiet demeanor serves to emphasis how children may express their feelings of disapproval. By communicating through his silence or gestures, Erick shows his disapproval towards the men in a relationship with his mother as he experiences them.
2. The novel, The Brothers K, enables the reader to understand a child’s idolization of a given sport, in this case, baseball.
...d but he could not achieve his goals. His situation is relatable to the audience even if one is not a baseball player. The book teaches the audience to avoid company and mistakes that can rob them their success. Roy Hobbs misfortunes remind the readers how some obstacles can alter someone’s dreams.
In John Connolly’s novel, The Book of Lost Things, he writes, “for in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be”. Does one’s childhood truly have an effect on the person one someday becomes? In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, this question is tackled through the recounting of Jeannette and Amir’s childhoods from the perspectives of their older, more developed selves. In the novels, an emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the relationships Jeannette and Amir have with their fathers while growing up, and the effects that these relations have on the people they each become. The environment to which they are both exposed as children is also described, and proves to have an influence on the characteristics of Jeannette and Amir’s adult personalities. Finally, through the journeys of other people in Jeannette and Amir’s lives, it is demonstrated that the sustainment of traumatic experiences as a child also has a large influence on the development of one’s character while become an adult. Therefore, through the analysis of the effects of these factors on various characters’ development, it is proven that the experiences and realities that one endures as a child ultimately shape one’s identity in the future.
In The Chosen, Reuven is very easily influenced by the people around him as he goes through his adolescence. It is a time of learning and self-realization for him, and at this time, he turns to his father for guidance and wisdom. His father shows him the ways of understanding and compassion. He also prepares him for what lies ahead, whether his son chooses to be a rabbi or not. Through his father’s teachings, Reuven develops the personal traits essential for becoming a rabbi.
Throughout the text “My name is Asher Lev” by Chaim Potok, minor characters of Jacob Kahn, the Rebbe, Uncle Yitzchok and Yudel Krinsky are central to our understanding of the text. Each character plays a significant part in the artistic progress of Asher Lev and allows him to reach a level of artistic talent at a young age. Their description and techniques used to describe them help the reader interpret the text thoroughly as they have an understanding of the type of character. Each minor character is as vital as the other as without one character Asher may not have been able to accomplish his great feats. Their contributions to Asher through either materials or advice are essential for Asher to establish himself as a great painter. Each character’s actions helping Asher succeed and also attributes to the tension created between themselves and Aryeh Lev which eventually results in the downfall of the Lev household. The minor characters are in essence the key to our understanding as each evaluates Asher’s feelings, emotions, and frustrations of art.
Children are seen as adorable, fun loving, and hard to control. Ida Fink uses a child in “The Key Game” to be the key to this family’s life. The setting is placed during the start of World War II; Jews all around were being taken. Fink uses a boy who doesn’t look the traditional Jewish, “And their chubby, blue-eyed, three-year-old child” (Fink). As they read on the emotional connection is stronger because there is a face to go with this character. Fink draws a reader in by making connections to a family member the reader may know. A blue-eyed, chubby child is the picture child of America. A child in any story makes readers more attached especially if they have children of their own. The child is three way too young to be responsible for the safety of the father, yet has to be. Throughout the story, we see how the mother struggles with making her child play the game because no child should be responsible like
Henry starts out as a low-lying baseball player and through the progression of his story, becomes a highly acclaimed player. By Henry’s “junior year, he was the starting varsity shortstop”, an impressive accomplishment that landed him rave attention from scouts of professional baseball (9). No matter how many games he played, when asked “how many errors he’d made”, he would always reply with “zero”, denoting his strive to the achievement of pure perfection and nothing less (9). Although Henry’s pursuit of perfection did him well in the end, as he became a top prospect for the MLB, it did so at the cost of losing his human sanity when faced with specific moments of failure. Instances such as accidentally striking Owen denote a moment of failure, as well as when Henry breaks down and is unable to continue with said pursuit of perfection. In addition, Henry always believed in maintaining both his pursuit of perfection as well as his own self-image of perfection. When Pella asks Henry, “So, what’s it like to be the best?”, this inflates Henry’s ego and encourages him to continue his pursuit of perfection (209). To this, he responds that you only notice that you are the best “when you screw up”, a seemingly pretentious response that only adds fuel to the ambition and quest for excellence through
In the “Prodigal”, the boy whom the speaker is addressing to yearns to accomplish his own goals by leaving his hometown behind and entering the urbanized world that is filled with endless opportunities and possibilities, including “[becoming] an artist of the provocative gesture”, “wanting the world and return carrying it”, and “[reclaiming] Main Street in a limo.” However, despite all these ambitious opportunities the boy wishes to pursue, he is ultimately unable to alter the perception of others who are the most familiar with his character. Rather, the people who are the most acquainted with the boy will perceive him with the same view as in the past. The thought of a newly changed boy that embraced a completely different identity while accomplishing several achievements, is incapable of affecting their perception of the past young boy from the county. This is illustrated when the speaker describes that even if the boy “stood in the field [he’d] disappear” and was still “aiming [his] eyes down the road” of opportunity, in the eyes of people who are most familiar with him, they will be unable to acknowledge this significantly changed individual. In complete contrast with those who are most familiar with him are others who are unfamiliar with his past. These individuals, whom the boy must have encountered while achieving his accomplishments,
The story provides many sources for the boy's animosity. Beginning with his home and overall environment, and reaching all the way to the adults that surround him. However, it is clear that all of these causes of the boy's isolation have something in common, he has control over none of these factors. While many of these circumstances no one can expect to have control over, it is the culmination of all these elements that lead to the boy’s undeniable feeling of lack of control.